By Francisco Miraval

DENVER – The gap between the graduation rate of Hispanics at Colorado public high schools and that of all students decreased in 2009, according to a government report.

The study by the Colorado Department of Education, released Sunday, revealed higher graduation rates among all students in the Class of 2009, up 0.7 percent from the previous year, and particularly among Hispanics, up 2.2 percent.

Judith Martinez, a consultant who heads the CDE’s dropout prevention office, said a new state law and greater awareness of the benefits accruing to those students who earn their high-school diploma contributed to the improved results.

In concrete terms, a total of 57.8 percent of Hispanic high-school students graduated last year, compared with 55.6 percent in 2008.

Among all students, the graduation rate climbed from 73.9 percent for the Class of 2008 to 74.6 percent last year.

That means that, due to improved academic performance by Latino students, the so-called “graduation gap” between Hispanics and Colorado students as a whole fell from 18.3 percent in 2008 to 16.8 percent last year.

“We are seeing increased concern for this issue at the local level,” Martinez said in a CDE press release.

“There is greater awareness of the high cost of dropping out – both the cost to the students in terms of reduced wages and unemployment and the cost to the community,” she said.

Martinez cited a study by the National Center for School Engagement that found that one high-school dropout will cost the community more than $200,000 in additional public support – including food stamps, subsidized housing and job training – over a lifetime.

The NCSE study showed that unemployment among those without a high-school diploma is 20 percent higher than the nationwide jobless rate and that men who did not finish high school earn 75 percent less than men who graduated.

Salaries among female non-graduates were 60 percent lower than those of women with a high-school diploma.

But Scott Flores, a former board member of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, told Efe that the cost to society could be even higher.

He said that in addition to the public-assistance costs mentioned in the NCSE report, people without a high-school diploma also are twice as likely to need medical care or to be in trouble with the law.

The real cost per dropout over a lifetime, therefore, is $715,000, Flores estimated.

To help alleviate the problem, Colorado lawmakers last year passed legislation creating the Office of Dropout Prevention and Student Re-engagement in the CDE.

That office’s goal, according to state Education Commissioner Dwight D. Jones, is “to ensure more students are graduating with a high-school diploma that is their ticket to success in the workforce or in college.”

“It is heartening to know schools in Colorado produced over a thousand more graduates last year than the year before. That is a reflection of the hard work by students, teachers and administrators and it is commendable,” Jones said. EFE